Family Update

I've been reminded by several folks that I need to update the blog, so here is a quick update. I thought that I would share some of Khoa's progress using his English. Here are a few phrases that we have found to be quite funny!
Mommy, my nose is coming out = runny nose.
Mom, whats tis? (as he points to his frank & beans) My peenee?
Yea ah did = Yes, I did
Spobby goo = Scooby Doo
I luf hew = I love you
Goplane = Air plane
Doobies = boobies (thanks Betsy! You are grounded...FOREVER)
ting ting = something
goggie = doggie
I see snore = I see more

dry hands? = he wants to wash his hands
Noonea = Narnia (he loves the "talking horse" who says "My name is Phillip")
Khoa was licking his lips and they were getting chapped. We told him to stop and -- His reply was "I can't stop"!
Mommy, see Khoa = Mommy, look at me!


There are a bunch more, but I just can't think of any right now.

Here is a video of Khoa that I took this evening. I thought it would be fun getting Khoa saying goodnight.....sorry that it is so dark, I obviously needed more light, but you can still hear his sweet voice just fine:




A few weeks ago Erin (our oldest) participated in the annual "Powder Puff" football game. Juniors vs. Seniors. She is a Junior. It didn't go that well. They got beat.....35 to ZIP!


Erin is right behind the line marker person. She is looking at the cheerleaders and is standing by the girl with black long sleeves. Hard to pick her out, I know! I didn't get any good shots! Loser Mom!

They all had fun and the cheerleaders were hilarious. Nice outfits guys! Those skirts will never be the same!


A few days ago, Betsy and my Mom and I went for a walk at our local state park. We came upon this very funny looking bench and of course, Betsy had to pose. She's so funny!

We are all doing great and enjoying the fall weather. I will hopefully have some new pictures of at least Betsy and Khoa to post after this coming weekend. We are headed to KY for fall break. Erin has to stay home for swim practice. :-(

Please say a prayer for our friends who are in Vietnam right now adopting their baby girl. They have been told that they may not be ready to come home for at least another two weeks. They have already been in-country for 12 days. They have two precious boys waiting for them back home and they are missing them something awful. Please pray that somehow things would move much quicker than expected so that they can come home soon!!!

Thanks for the prayers.....

Quick update on Khoa:

Our little man is feeling much better! He is no longer running a fever and is not coughing near as much. Thanks for all of your prayers!

Khoa has pneumonia. Not sure how the ER Doctor didn't know that, considering he's the one who ordered the chest x-rays and said they looked fine. Thank God that our family doctor took a look at them and called yesterday to tell us that he had pneumonia in one lung. I took Khoa to see our Dr. today and he changed his antibiotic and hopefully we will see some improvement soon. His fever hasn't broken yet. It's been running between 99 and 104 (with the Motrin). We are now alternating Motrin and Tylenol. Hopefully he will sleep thru the night. We've tried two different cough meds and they aren't really doing much. We are now trying Mucinex Cough for kids. He also now has diarrhea more than likely because of the antibiotic.

Erin took this picture of Khoa laying on the floor between our kitchen and dining room. I was making dinner and he plopped down on the rug and waited for me to finish. Poor baby. Please pray that Khoa will feel better soon. He feels terrible and it just breaks my heart.

It may be a long night!

We are experiencing our little man being sick for the first time. We really don't know what his health was like the first 3 1/2 years of his life. We don't have any other times to compare this to. I feel like a first time Mom and I guess to some extent I am. Khoa has been running a fever of 103.3 and sounds like a chair sliding across the floor when he coughs. He woke up this morning gasping for breathe and crying. I thought maybe it was the Croup. According the ER Doctor, it is not. He has a middle ear infection, a Lower Respiratory infection and a throat infection. What!?! He's had a bit of a fever the last few days off and on, but nothing to indicate what we would wake up to this morning. We took him to the ER since he was having so much trouble catching his breath. It was a little scary, but he did so good at the hospital. He's a trooper! He is just miserable. He's been either on the couch or in his bed ALL day. That's not our little man! He's usually up and going the minute his eyes open and doesn't slow down until he has too!

Please pray that he will feel better in the morning. We will have been able to get about 5 doses of antibiotics in him by Monday morning.

Last weekend...

We had a nice Labor Day weekend spent at home. It was very nice to get some things done around the house that have been neglected. Like the landscaping. I'm usually pretty good about keeping everything weeded, but since our oldest daughter saw a snake in the flowers, well....I just couldn't bring myself to take the leap and start weeding. I put it off as long as possible. When my mom asked me if I knew the things growing in my flowers were weeds, I knew it was time. Sooo, the biggest part of Friday and Saturday were spent outside, but it was a beautiful weather weekend here in the mid-west so I really enjoyed being outside.

Khoa is doing much better with pre-K. Thank you, God! Last week was tough, but hopefully we are past the crying and screaming and begging not to go to school. I wondered how it would go yesterday since he didn't have to go to school on Monday, but he did great! Went right in just like a big boy. The first thing he said when I picked him up yesterday was that he didn't have to go poopy while he was there! Here is a video of Khoa talking about not going back to school. I know I'm his Mommy, but look at those eyes. Aren't they the sweetest ever!!!






Uncle Dan and Aunt Jo Jo passed along to Khoa this fun little jeep. He loves it and drives everywhere. I'm happy to say that he can now drive it without running into my clothes line post or the swingset! Grandpa put in a new battery and the car can go pretty fast now. He's taken the dog a ride (which I hate that I didn't get on video) and all of his favorite toys.



Isn't his play set and little house the cutest! We've had so much fun watching him play and pretend. Uncle Brad and Aunt Jeanie built the play house for their boys and they had out grown it. Grandpa and Daddy took it apart, moved it to our house, put it back together and then roofed it again. What a great bunch of guys we have! I love the American Flag flying!



If you get a chance, check out the post below this one. I actually posted both of these just an hour or so apart.....maybe I should have just made them one big post, but the post below deserves it's own title!

Yucky with a capital Yuck!

I'm not one to really freak out about much, but what I saw the other day was eye-opening to say the least. Have you ever given any thought to what happens to the shopping carts when they are not being used? I hadn't. I've been noticing the boxes of wipes that are offered to wash off the handles on the carts at certain stores. I've used them a few times. After what I saw today, I think that I'll have to take my own cleaning supplies to de-contaminate the stinkin' cart where ever I shop! At this particular Meijer, there were two fairly long rows of carts parked very close to where we pulled up to wait on my husband. I was looking out the window of the van and that's when I noticed nasty little birds running in and out of almost every cart lined up. They were in the seat, on the handles and seemed like everywhere in between. I really had never given it a thought that the carts we use to put our groceries and our children in, are being molested by nasty dirty yucky little birds!


EEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW! Birds are full of germs and I can just see a mom with a small baby putting her baby in the seat and of course that baby is going to try and taste anything she/he can get to. Yuck!! Now I understand those new things you can buy to put over the seat and handle of the shopping cart. I have to admit that until now I thought the covers were over-kill, but now..... I think they are a must if you have a baby that can sit-up in the cart.

Again, I'm normally fairly level-headed and don't freak out about too much, but for some reason, little birds using the carts as a playgroud just makes my stmoach turn.

I didn't have my camera with me so I had to use my camera phone to take the pictures. They aren't very clear and you can only see one bird in each picture, but trust me there are at least 10 hanging out.

I've tried to figure out how I can do my shopping without a cart, but I don't think there is anyway I can do it. Soooo, I guess I'll be carrying my own antibacterial wipes with me so that maybe I'll feel safe enough to let Khoa ride in the cart without being afraid that he will end up with some nasty birdy turdy germs on his precious little hands.

What were we thinking?!?

Khoa's been home 8 months and seems to be doing pretty well. So we had this great idea that it was time for Khoa to start Pre-K. We found a pre-school that is willing to work with me on what mornings he goes to school. Since I work on Monday's and Thursday's I would just as soon have him in school on those two mornings so that I don't have to be away from him on the mornings that I don't work. The only day that he will have school that I don't work is on Tuesday. I can live with that. Gives me a few hours all by myself. Anyway, school started this last Thursday. Rob took off work and we both took Khoa to his first day of pre-school and then I went on to work. He did fantastic....except for one "minor" detail. It's been a while since I've had a kid in preschool and when they said they require the kids to be potty trained, I thought "no biggie". Wrong! Here's where the "minor" detail comes in. Khoa doesn't know how to wipe his little hiney after he's pooped. Guess what? ...he had to poop and when he was done, he hollered for the teacher. Guess what? ....the pre-school teachers do not help the kids wipe (don't blame them). Period! I guess after several minutes of the teacher trying to get Khoa to wipe his own behind and Khoa crying that he couldn't do it by "hisssself" the teacher finally helped him (bless her) and then called Daddy to let him know that Khoa needed to learn that little skill as soon as possible. After Daddy picked him up from school they came to my work to take me to lunch. I was so excited to hear about his morning at school. I asked Khoa if he had a good time and he said, "No.!" "Khoa no go poopy by hisssself. I quied." I felt AWFUL!!! The poor kid has been scarred for life. Well, he had several "opportunities" to practice wiping by himself this last weekend, with much success. I thought that he would do just fine this morning when I dropped him off. Wrong again!!! He kept saying that he didn't want to go to school and that he wanted to go to work with me. I stayed in the class for a few minutes and we couldn't get his attention off of me leaving. Sooooo, his wonderful and patient teacher pried him off of me as he was screaming and crying at the top of his lungs. It was heartbreaking to say the least. As I walked out of the building I looked back and all of the other little kids were sitting in a circle holding their hands over their ears because Khoa was screaming so loudly. I cried all the way to work. I called the school about 10 minutes later and the teacher said that his monkey had saved the day. She got it out of his back pack (she's goood!!)and gave it to him and he decided that he could handle the morning after all. He didn't have to poop today at school, which I think was probably a good thing. He's already saying he's not going to school tomorrow. Oh Joy! I just wonder if his morning would have been different if I he hadn't had the "hiney wipe" problem on Thursday. When I talk to him about the fact that he has been able to wipe himself several times with no problems, he responds that he can wipe at "Mommy's house" and "Gwandpa's house" and at "Church", but not at school.

So what do you think? I hope we are not doing the wrong thing by making him go to pre-K. If he was a child that we had raised since birth, I wouldn't be questioning our decision, but the fact is, this precious child has only known what a family is for 8 months. Maybe I'm pushing him too much. But, if we don't make him go to pre-K now that he's been a few times, are we making matters worse in the long run? Geeze Louise what's a Mommy and Daddy to do!?!

I have a few pictures of Khoa's first day that I will post, but I can't do it right now. I took them with our daughters camera and I don't know where the thingy is to plug into the camera to up-load them to the computer.